Now that you have gotten past my woes traveling to Ireland I will now try to tell you what I did on the first day.

My cousin Sarah was kind enough to pick me up at the airport. I had no problems with customs and my bag was one of the first to come off the plane. Bet ya that won’t happen when I fly back home. LOL

I have not seen Sarah in close to 20 years. The last time I saw her she was most likely 14 or 15 years old. I was not sure if I would recognize her or she me. Amazingly she recognized me right away. Hmmm I guess in my family we ALL do look alike.
We drove to my hotel, The Shelbourne, which until then I did not realize was a REALLY nice hotel!! I was only supposed to stay there one night before I would go over to my cousin Martin’s house where I would stay the next two nights. But Murphy’s Law was in full force which I will get into later.

So I get to the hotel and Sarah left to park her car back by where she lived about 15 minutes walking distance and she would come back and play tour guide for the rest of the day. I did an early check in and since the room was not ready just left my bags with the desk and went to the lobby to wait for Sarah. Do not forget about my flight over, I was a little tired and when I sat down in the chair I really did not know if I would be able to get back up.

My nephew borrowed my laptop from Sunday to Thursday to finish a paper for school. I felt that was more important than updating my blog. I am now taking the next day or so to put my thoughts down and hope to have a LOAD of things in the next day or so.

Well, the trip started off OK even though the flight over was a tad rough. I was able to leave work early which let me leisurely make sure I had everything I needed packed, Left for the airport a little after six o’clock and made it to the parking lot with no problem. Heck, the traffic on the Belt Parkway was not to bad for a Friday evening in the summertime. LOL

Got to the terminal, checked my bag and stood in line for security screening. Went through that with no hassle even with all the electronics I was bringing on board. But I did have to take off my belt since the buckle made the metal detector go NO,NO, NO!!

I had plenty of time to kill at this point so I made my way to the bar and ordered some food and had a beer and talked with a fellow traveler for a little while about…….traveling!!

Well it finally came for us to board the plane and with my seat being at the back I was one of the first to board. Got to my seat, stowed my bag, took out my Kindle, bottle of water and my noise cancelling headphones (a GODSEND you will see later) and sat down.

Once I sat down I knew I would have a problem, the seats were damn uncomfortable! After a while I was longing for the seats I take on the bus to work, they are sooooooo much more comfortable. My seatmate came by and got in next to me (I was in an aisle seat, his was the window and we both proceeded to start reading. Neither of us said a word to each other during the entire flight, I have no idea why.

Well the flight takes off about 40 minutes after it was scheduled to (all the taxiing and waiting on the runway) and I put my headphones on. These things are FANTASTIC!!! They must have cut down at least 90% of the engine and cabin noise and you were able to hear people talking (although more muted). They were doing a great job until the babies started crying.

Yes, there were at least 2 or 3 infants on the flight and it appeared that at least 1 of them was crying through the ENTIRE flight!! I swear the headphones were good but they were no match for this kids crying and screaming. I felt bad for the parents and the other passengers that could not drown out the noise as much as I could with my headphones but even still the baby got through.

After the beverages, snacks and dinner were served I tried to close my eyes and get some sleep. It was not to be.

As mentioned earlier the seats on the plane were extremely uncomfortable. The bottom did not seem to have enough cushioning. I had the leg room and the people walking in the aisle did not bother me that much but I just could not get into a comfortable position to sleep. Combine that with the baby and the almost non stop crying and you had a very miserable experience.

I think I could count the amount of sleep could be counted in minutes instead of hours. Needless to say when I finally arrived I was tired but elated to be in Ireland. So now that my travel travails have been exorcised on to Dublin!!!!!!

Well here it is, 24 days till it is wheels up and I am off to Ireland. I am going to try and do a travel blog while I am away. I will be taking my laptop and some camera’s so I will be posting pictures.

I have done some things to prepare for this trip as far as my lifestyle is concerned. After having problems with my feet when I was walking around Washington DC in May and in New York when Blackfield came to play I have decided to go back to the gym after close to two or more years. Starting about two weeks ago I would hit the gym after work at least 3 or 4 times a week. I had started off with 30 – 40 minutes of cardio on an elliptical machine but I have cut that down to 25 minutes since I started weight training a week or so ago. I will usually start the workout with 10-15 minutes on the elliptical followed by the weight training and finish with another 10-15 minutes on the elliptical.

I weighed 216 lbs before I started going back to working out and I am hoping to shed at least 10 or more lbs before I leave on Aug 5th and when I come back to lose and additional 10 – 15 lbs.

In addition to getting the body in shape with exercise I have altered my diet. I am snacking a lot more on vegetables and some fruit (bananas, oranges, peaches). Breakfast will consist usually of a whole grain cereal and milk or occasionally a ham, egg and cheddar on a wrap. Lunch at work I have stayed with soup and a salad and dinner some sort of chicken or make a soup with a little turkey sausage thrown in. On the weekends I will stick with some sort of chicken sandwich or other protein. If I order out I will usually have sushi or some Thai food. No more fast food or pizza. I have also cut down my soda intake, even though I only drink diet soda I felt it was something to try and not have as much of.

So, at the end of all this I hope that in the short term it will let me explore Ireland and London without it stressing my body from the excess weight and in the long run be able to be a lot more active and get out of the apartment more and not be the couch potato I have become in the past few years.